During
Thursday's City Council meeting, Showers will discuss his idea to rename about
two miles of Church Street between Williams and Oakwood avenues. The busy
downtown street passes in front of Big Spring International Park, Huntsville
Museum of Art, the Historic Huntsville Depot and Huntsville-Madison County
Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Born in
Huntsville in 1921, Lowery grew up in a house on Church Street across from
where WHNT-TV now sits.

Lowery started school in
Huntsville but spent his middle school years in Chicago. He finished high
school here, however, and also attended Alabama A&M University.

Lowery's involvement in the civil
rights movement began in the early 1950s when he became pastor of Warren Street
United Methodist Church in Mobile. In 1957, he and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Lowery went on to play
key roles in the Montgomery bus boycott and Selma to Montgomery marches that
focused America's attention on racism in the South.

A Wednesday news release from Showers called
Lowery "Huntsville's most distinguished historic icon and native son."

"We'll continue to see if we can
get the community to honor this great man who has made a definite and positive
contribution to the country," he told AL.com. "Hopefully, we can do this while
he's still living."

Showers said
he will present his proposal to rename Church Street at Thursday's council meeting
and take comments from the public. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. on the ground
floor of Huntsville City Hall, 308 Fountain Circle.

The idea
still has to go before the Planning Commission for discussion and public
hearings before coming back before the City Council for a vote.